About CAAs and Our Non-Profit Organization
About CAAs
Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants (CAAs) are highly trained non-physician mid-level practitioners and healthcare professionals that provide anesthesia care. All CAAs possess a science/premedical background, a baccalaureate degree, and also complete a comprehensive didactic and clinical training program at the graduate school level. CAAs are trained extensively in the delivery and maintenance of quality anesthesia care, as well as advanced patient monitoring techniques, and emergency scenarios. The profession was created in the 1960s by physician anesthesiologists who desired to create another category of physician extenders to help correct the shortage of anesthesia providers without pulling from critical care nursing resources. CAAs practice exclusively in hospital/operating room settings within the Anesthesia Care Team environment (as described by the American Society of Anesthesiologists™) to help implement an anesthetic plan as prescribed by the anesthesiologist. CAAs invariably work under the medical direction and supervision of physician anesthesiologists, analogous to the way in which Physician Assistants (PAs) work with physicians in other specialties. Salaries, scope of practice, and job descriptions are identical to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) when working within the Anesthesia Care Team model.​
Our Mission
Through our non-profit organization, we hope to raise awareness of the Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant profession in the state of Nevada. Licensure of these medical professionals and the addition of another category of physician extenders that local anesthesiologists can utilize allows more flexibility and ability to help alleviate some of the desperate need for anesthesia providers in the area with an additional provider option within the Anesthesia Care Team (ACT) model. The ACT model helps to create a more efficient hospital operating room setting, greater access to care, and a healthier, safer, and more desirable work environment for physician anesthesiologists. Combining these advanced practitioners with physician anesthesiologists will allow for physician led care and stress a patient centric team approach. This combination will also allow for the involvement of input from more than one clinician in each patient's care in order to create the best anesthetic plan possible. We want to highlight the importance of professional advocacy and we wish to educate those in Nevada regarding our profession's long standing history of providing safe and quality anesthesia care to our patients and communities.